Keep Your Enemies Closer
by itsmelinda
Summary: In which Eponine survives at the barricade.
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Eponine's haste to arrive at the barricade and to see Marius had left her breathless, hot, and sweating, and she was just beginning to cool off once again. However, as soon as the scene in front of her registered—Marius was there. Marius was there and he was about to be shot—Eponine felt her blood boil. She saw a man pull his gun's trigger, and rushed forward to try to block it from hitting and killing Marius; she knew her own death would matter far less than the death of this boy, but she did not get there in time./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Eponine heard the bang of the bullet leaving its chamber and felt the thud of Marius' limp body hitting the ground, signaling her inability to even become a martyr correctly. Eponine wanted to give up, to fall next to the man she loved and die with him, but survival had been engrained into her by her parents. Instead of falling into her pit of grief, Eponine straightened out and ran for the barricade and away from the firing French troops./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Eponine was almost in cover when she felt it. There was horrible, white-hot pain in her lower leg, halting her retreat. She could see darkness blurring the edges of her vision and, not for the first time, wondered if this is where she was going to die. Eponine had a vague sense of hitting the ground before she stopped feeling completely./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"When Eponine opened her eyes and took a look around, she noticed that it did not look like she was in Heaven, but it didn't look much like she imagined Hell either. In fact, it almost looked as if she was in someone's home. The room was dark and small, complete with closed doors and drawn curtains. Frantic with fear, Eponine lunged up from her lying position and upright. Or, at least she tried to. As soon as she attempted to stand, her injured leg collapsed and she cried out in pain./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"This noise drew two people into the room: Cosette and the old man Eponine assumed was her father or grandfather. The old man lifted her back onto the bed and introduced himself as Monsieur Fauchelevent before leaving the two girls alone in the room./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Do you mind if I take a look at your leg?" Cosette asked. "I need to check the stitches."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Eponine could do nothing but nod as she stared, shocked, at the younger girl. Where Eponine had grown ugly as she aged, Cosette had become beautiful. This lovely girl who probably wasn't aware that the man she loved was dead. Eponine could have saved him, and now Cosette was tending to her injuries./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""He's dead," Eponine blurted out. "Marius, I mean. I was there and I could have helped him." Eponine's mouth was moving faster than her brain could supply the words . However, seeing Cosette's reaction forced Eponine into silence./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Cosette's entire body froze for a moment before continuing to reapply the bandages to Eponine's leg. After a short time, Cosette quietly pinned the end of the bandage down and began to sob. Cosette's tears released the dam holding back Eponine's, and she reached out to embrace the other heartbroken girl. Together, these two young girls felt that, working together, they might just be able to mend the holes in their hearts and live happily for the rest of their days./p 


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